Cuomo asks DHS to call for COVID-19 checks for intercontinental airline travellers
Wed, Jan 6th 2021 05:10 pm
Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday issued a letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Safety Acting Secretary Chad Wolf asking him to involve that airline vacationers to the U.S. acquire a adverse COVID-19 take a look at final result in advance of remaining allowed into the country.
Roughly 120 nations around the world involve travellers current a adverse examination end result prior to boarding worldwide flights. Among 70,000 and 80,000 worldwide travellers get there at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York Metropolis every week. The federal authorities now calls for vacationers from the U.K. to get a detrimental check result, but the U.K. variant of COVID-19 has spread to extra than 30 other countries.
The complete text of the letter is beneath:
January 6, 2021
Pricey Acting Secretary Wolf:
I write to you with an urgent plea. I request that you straight away acquire motion with the CDC and HHS to call for a detrimental PCR check inside 72 hours of departure for all travellers arriving from international places.
There are at the moment 70-80,000 travellers arriving at JFK from exterior of the United States each individual 7 days. I have for months deployed as lots of as 100 personnel to satisfy domestic flights, and implement our domestic vacation quarantine, but do not have entry to arrivals of international flights. These spots of the airport are underneath the sole federal handle of Customs and Border Defense and the CDC. After an particular person is previously on U.S. soil, I believe that it is much too late in any case.
Several other international locations acted aggressively in November or December to possibly ground flights totally, or to meet up with flights to implement rigorous quarantines and screening demands. Some 120 nations have to have that each individual passenger existing a destructive exam end result prior to boarding, and dozens much more prohibit all travel solely. On December 25, you belatedly demanded a adverse exam outcome from tourists returning from the U.K. only. But the U.K. variant, “B.1.1.7” which has so much been believed at anywhere from 50-70% a lot more transmissible, has now been identified in extra than 30 other nations around the world. This pressure is so virulent it went from staying simply a quarter of all U.K. situations in November to around two-thirds in just 1 month. A South African and now Nigerian strain have also been determined, equally demonstrating proof of amplified transmissibility.
When we do not still know if there is any impression on the capability of these variants to outsmart the vaccines we so urgently designed, we can only hope that we end it prior to it surges our caseload over and above the capability of the U.S. well being care system.
The only way to manage this is to handle this at the source – reduce any passenger who is constructive from finding on the aircraft. We saw from our have genetic testing that the virus that arrived in New York came here from Europe, not China. It was our failure to handle the airports that brought this virus to us. We have now witnessed that the motion taken on Xmas was as well late to reduce the U.K. pressure from generating its way to New York and other states, and has been circulating.
We can nonetheless learn our mistake from previous spring, we can do what ought to be carried out – order all airways flying into the U.S. from international destinations to call for a detrimental COVID-19 test. It is not plenty of to basically handle the U.K. that ship has sailed. We can, even so, reduce the future mutation by pursuing the science.
I am keen to support in any way I can, but only Customs and Border Defense can certainly shield us from this next threat.
Sincerely,
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
cc:
Secretary Azar, Wellbeing and Human Providers
Dr. Redfield, CDC